Dionne L. Price (29 August 1971 – 22 February 2024) was an American

statistician A statistician is a person who works with Theory, theoretical or applied statistics. The profession exists in both the private sector, private and public sectors. It is common to combine statistical knowledge with expertise in other subjects, a ...

and first African-American president of the

American Statistical Association The American Statistical Association (ASA) is the main professional organization for statisticians and related professionals in the United States. It was founded in Boston, Massachusetts, on November 27, 1839, and is the second-oldest continuous ...

(ASA), the world's largest professional body representing statisticians. Price worked as a division director in the Office of Biostatistics of the

Center for Drug Evaluation and Research The Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER, pronounced "see'-der") is a division of the Food and Drug Administration (United States), U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that monitors most drugs as defined in the Food, Drug, and Cosmet ...

, in the US

Food and Drug Administration The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA or US FDA) is a List of United States federal agencies, federal agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Health and Human Services. The FDA is respo ...

. Her division provided statistical advice "used in the regulation of anti-infective, anti-viral, ophthalmology, and transplant drug products".

Education and career

Price was

African-American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. ...

, and grew up in

Portsmouth, Virginia Portsmouth is an Independent city (United States), independent city in southeastern Virginia, United States. It lies across the Elizabeth River (Virginia), Elizabeth River from Norfolk, Virginia, Norfolk. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 ...

; her mother was a schoolteacher. She majored in applied mathematics at

Norfolk State University Norfolk State University (NSU) is a Public university, public Historically black colleges and universities, historically black university in Norfolk, Virginia. It is a member of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund and Virginia High-Tech Partnersh ...

, earned a master's degree from the

University of North Carolina The University of North Carolina is the Public university, public university system for the state of North Carolina. Overseeing the state's 16 public universities and the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, it is commonly referre ...

, and completed her Ph.D. at

Emory University Emory University is a private university, private research university in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. It was founded in 1836 as Emory College by the Methodist Episcopal Church and named in honor of Methodist bishop John Emory. Its main campu ...

in 2000. Her dissertation, ''Survival Models for Heterogeneous Populations with Cure'', was supervised by

Amita Manatunga Amita Kalyanie Manatunga is a Sri Lankan biostatistician who works as a professor of biostatistics and bioinformatics at the Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, where she is also affiliated with the Winship Cancer Institute. Her res ...

, and with it she became the first African-American to earn a doctorate in biostatistics at Emory. After finishing her doctorate, she joined the Food and Drug Administration. She helped establish the U.S. FDA's Complex Innovative Trial Design Pilot Meeting Program, which encouraged the use of Bayesian and other novel clinical trial designs in order to advance new and innovative trial designs in drug development.

Recognition

Price was the keynote speaker at StatFest 2016, a one-day conference at

Howard University Howard University is a private, historically black, federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C., United States. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity" and accredited by the Mid ...

organized by the ASA Committee on Minorities in Statistics to encourage statistical students from underrepresented groups. She was elected as a Fellow of the ASA in 2018. She was "elected the 118th president of the American Statistical Association (ASA). She served a one-year term as president-elect beginning January 1, 2022; her term as president became effective January 1, 2023. She was elected to the 2022 class of Fellows of the

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is a United States–based international nonprofit with the stated mission of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsib ...

(AAAS). Price was the first African-American president of the ASA, serving for a year from 1 January 2023."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Price, Dionne Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American women statisticians African-American statisticians American statisticians Norfolk State University alumni University of North Carolina alumni Emory University alumni 21st-century African-American scientists 21st-century American mathematicians 21st-century American women scientists 21st-century African-American women Presidents of the American Statistical Association People from Portsmouth, Virginia Food and Drug Administration people Mathematicians from Virginia American biostatisticians